Eukaryotic opportunists dominate the deep-subsurface biosphere in South Africa
Publication Year
2015
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Following the discovery of the first Eukarya in the deep subsurface, intense interest has developed to understand the diversity of eukaryotes living in these extreme environments. We identified that Platyhelminthes, Rotifera, Annelida and Arthropoda are thriving at 1.4km depths in palaeometeoric fissure water up to 12,300yr old in South African mines. Protozoa and Fungi have also been identified; however, they are present in low numbers. Characterization of the different species reveals that many are opportunistic organisms with an origin due to recharge from surface waters rather than soil leaching. This is the first known study to demonstrate the in situ distribution of biofilms on fissure rock faces using video documentation. Calculations suggest that food, not dissolved oxygen is the limiting factor for eukaryal population growth. The discovery of a group of Eukarya underground has important implications for the search for life on other planets in our solar system. © 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Keywords
genomic DNA,
RNA 16S,
RNA 18S,
surface water,
tritium,
soil,
water,
Biodiversity,
biofilm,
biosphere,
Dissolved oxygen,
dominance,
eukaryote,
fissure,
fungus,
invertebrate,
population growth,
protozoan,
recharge,
videography,
water depth,
Acidobacteria,
Alphaproteobacteria,
amplicon,
annelid,
arthropod,
Article,
bacterial growth,
bacterial strain,
Bacteroidetes,
Betaproteobacteria,
biofilm,
biosphere,
Bradyrhizobium,
chemical composition,
Chlorobi,
climate,
Comamonas,
community structure,
concentration (parameters),
controlled study,
Deltaproteobacteria,
DNA extraction,
DNA isolation,
Escherichia coli,
eukaryote,
filtration,
Firmicutes,
fungus,
Gammaproteobacteria,
geochemical analysis,
Kluyveromyces marxianus,
Lysobacter,
microbial community,
microbial diversity,
microenvironment,
mining,
Myxococcales,
nonhuman,
nucleic acid amplification,
platyhelminth,
population growth,
precipitation,
protozoon,
Rotifera,
South Africa,
species identification,
Sulfolobus solfataricus,
surface property,
Thiobacillus,
videorecording,
water analysis,
water contamination,
water sampling,
water treatment,
animal,
biofilm,
ecosystem,
eukaryote,
genetics,
molecular genetics,
nematode,
nucleotide sequence,
soil,
South Africa,
Annelida,
Arthropoda,
Eukaryota,
Fungi,
Platyhelminthes,
Protozoa,
Rotifera,
Animals,
Annelida,
Arthropods,
Base Sequence,
Biofilms,
ecosystem,
Eukaryota,
Fungi,
mining,
Molecular Sequence Data,
Nematoda,
Platyhelminths,
Rotifera,
soil,
South Africa,
Video Recording,
water
Journal
Nature Communications
Volume
6